Features

The future of Reddy Realty, Berkeley’s biggest and most infamous real estate company remained in doubt Friday.

Residents of the Reddy’s estimated 1,000 apartment units received letters Friday informing them that the company was going out of business and was in the process of assigning their properties to an outside property management company.

A reddy employee, however, said that the company was only changing its name and that it would continue to own the buildings.

A city official speculated that the company planned to relinquish the management of their properties to an outside firm, but retain ownership under a new name.

In March 2001, Lakireddy Bali Reddy, the company’s former head, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and transporting a minor for illegal sex. The charges stemmed from an investigation into the death of a young female tenant who died the previous November of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty heating unit.

The “Reddy Realty” sign on the company’s Shattuck Avenue offices had been taken down as of Friday. The only sign on the storefront was for Jay Construction.